Mother Teresa

Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu

Lived

1910–1997

Era

Twentieth century and after

Where

Calcutta

Tradition

Roman Catholic

The Missionaries of Charity

An Albanian nun teaching at a convent school in Calcutta who in 1946 concluded she was called to work with the destitute in the streets, left the convent, took Indian citizenship, and founded the Missionaries of Charity in 1950.

Why it matters

The order grew to thousands of sisters in over a hundred countries, running homes for the dying, for abandoned children and for people with leprosy. She became the most recognisable Christian in the world and used it, taking the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 without a banquet and asking for the cost to be given away. Her letters, published after her death against her wishes, show almost fifty years without any sense of God's presence. Critics have faulted the medical standards in the homes and her acceptance of money from donors like Charles Keating; her defenders answer that she never claimed to run hospitals.

All the figures, from the apostolic age to the present, or the timeline they stand in.